of wickedness and meanness; not only crooked in
soul, but in body--being in point of fact an _enano_ or dwarf-hunchback.

Previous to the arrival of those who were henceforth to share their
cell, this ill-assorted pair had been kept chained together, as much by
way of punishment as to prevent escape. But now, the gaol-governor, as
if struck by a comical idea, directed them to be separated, and the
dwarf linked to the Texan Colossus--thus presenting a yet more ludicrous
contrast of couples--while the ex-captain of the filibusters and the
reputed robber were consigned to the same chain.

Of the new occupants of the cloister, Cris Rock was the more disgusted
with the situation. His heart was large enough to feel sympathy for
humanity in any shape, and he would have pitied his deformed
fellow-prisoner, but for a deformity of the latter worse than any
physical ugliness; for the Texan soon learnt that the hideous creature,
whose couch as well as chain he was forced to share, had committed
crimes of the most atrocious nature, among the rest murder! It was, in
fact, for this last that he was now in the Acordada--a cowardly murder,
too--a case of poisoning. That he still lived was due to the proofs not
being legally satisfactory, though no one doubted of his having
perpetrated the crime. At first contact with this wretch the Texan had
recoiled in horror, without knowing aught of his past. There was that
in his face which spoke a history of dark deeds. But when this became
known to the new denizens of the cell, the proximity of such a monster
was positively revolting to them.

Vengeance itself could not have devised a more effective mode of
torture. Cris Rock groaned under it, now and then grinding his teeth
and stamping his feet, as if he could have trodden the mis-shapen thing
into a still more shapeless mass under the heels of his heavy boots.

For the first two days of their imprisonment in the Acordada neither of
the Texans could understand why they were being thus punished--as it
were to satisfy some personal spite. None of the other Mier prisoners,
of whom several had been brought to the same gaol, were submitted to a
like degradation. True, these were also chained two and two; but to one
another, and not to Mexican criminals. Why, then, had they alone been
made an exception? For their lives neither could tell or guess, though
they gave way to every kind of conjecture. It was true enough that Cris
Rock had